Owly

So I guess this is going to be my last post for 2011. Oh well I intended to get a lot more done this year but life kind of gets in the way. No worries though more to come in the new year and many years to follow! On that note, Happy New Year to all!

Oh I guess I should say something about this little guy huh...We'll he is made out of sculpey clay. Just wanted to try to make some of my little critters more "real". It was kind of fun little project but I think my box of clay has been kicking around for a few years and it was really hard to work with. However I did make it out to the store and got a fresh new box so I will be making more little critters!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and all that Jazz..

To all my blogger friends out there and anyone who may stumble upon this... I wish you a Merry Merry and Happy New Year! :)

Holiday Bunnies: Lilly and Mable

These two fluffy critters are going to be on their way to Michigan, their next home in a few days. I made these for my friends Jon and Sarah's two little girls. The bunnies are made out of a shaggy fluffy felt then the usual micro fleece that I normally use. I added some eyelashes and knitted them scarves out of the last bit of really good angora blend yarn. I hope they like them! The bunnies names are Lilly and Mable. I am going to have to make set for my store some time soon!

IF: Brigade

Beware of the Bunny Brigade! Eh I really wanted to redo this on the computer however it was do that or make X-mas cards and well X-mas cards kind of got the upper hand. I may however still redo this illustration but we shall see. For now it's just a marker sketch.

Under attack!

Yet another squid drawing... More colored pencils were graciously abused for this! Unfortunately I was too eager to post this that I scanned it in a few sections and had to use Photoshop to put it together rather than taking a good picture. Not too bad. Enjoy!

Society 6 Store is opened!

I have been meaning to post some new art but I just haven't gotten around to making any lately plus my computer has decided it doesn't work for me anymore! However I do have a few projects in the works. I just wanted to let whoever out there interested I have a store up on Society 6. I don't expect anyone to buy anything but please feel free to give my store some love by following me! I'd appreciate it much!

IF: Silence

Here's my illustration for this weeks topic. I have been wanting to draw this for awhile and I finally got it done. The topic silence made me think about how quiet and still everything is on a snowy winter day.

Dia de los muertos

I meant to finish this an post a it I guess a week or so ago but it never happened. However I finished her tonight!

Lady of the Water- Aqua

Here is drawing number 2 of this series...I might do another but we'll just see about that.

Pink Octo Bookmark

Here is another bookmark for my friend Kelly.

Octo bookmark

I made this for my mom! She doesn't read books but she keeps it on display. Thanks Mom!

Project Halloween

This year I didn't really have thought out plans for a Halloween costume and usually that means I do my default zombie costume of some sort. This time I wanted to make it a little different and actually I wouldn't even say I was a "zombie". Lately as you can see from my last few blog posts that I have really been on an octopus/ squid kick so I wanted to keep that going for this costume. I had this great idea to be a person who drowned at sea and make some little creatures since that's what I am really best at and just give a drown victim with a "Liz" twist. The story for my costume is I got pushed off a cruise ship one night, drowned because I got caught up in some netting and came back from the dead to seek revenge on my killer.

It's kind of a pretty simple costume and I could have taken it further but I had limited time to really get everything I needed. I bought fishing net and attached aquarium plants to it for seaweed as well as actually making some seaweed myself with felt. The octopus is a Liz original creation along with the starfish and dead fishies. The cool thing about the octopus is that it has bendable legs which it the first time I ever tried to do that using armature wire for sculpting. It worked out so well that the octopus will become a new toy design and the monkey design that I have made in the past will be adjusted to come with a bendable tail for future productions of it! I made the octopus so that it could be worn all night long and not fall off my head and the other little critters were attached to my fishing net. I kept my outfit pretty simple because I just didn't have time to find the perfect dress and didn't really want to take away from the netting and creatures attached to it. Here are tons of pictures of these guys before they were put in use. Unfortunately I don't have very many pictures of myself with the whole get up on from the Halloween party!

Happy Halloweenie!

I hope everyone had a nice day! I will be celebrating my halloween festivities this coming friday due to last weeks snow storm getting into the way of things! Pictures will be up this coming weekend so you can all see my ridiculous costume!

Lady of the water

Yep, she has tentacles for hair. Another one of illustrations done on that beautiful natural paper I love so much! I am going to need more! I am going to need more colored pencils too! Stay tuned for another one like this...

IF: Scattered

Autumn leaves scattered across the ground.....my favorite time of year.

IF: Contraption

Ok this might be a little bit of a stretch but the story is here that Milo and his pet penguin, Sausalito decide they want to find the creature that lives in the deepest part of the ocean, named Frankenfish. In order to do that though Milo creates an underwater contraption so they can explore the deepest darkest depths of the ocean. It doesn't take long till the find Frankenfish but is he friend or foe? Stay tuned for possibly another illustration..maybe.

Waiting for the Bus.

So this is an older illustration, maybe a few years ago. I was looking thru all of my illustrations and folders on my computer and I forgot I did this. I actually opened it because I thought it was something else. I still really like it and I don't do that wide- eyed style too much these days but I like the way this character was done. Unfortunately I never got around to making a background for it and settled with a pattern and truth is I never will get around to the background. I still think it's worthy enough to be shown on here though.

IF: Hibernate

Yikes! I haven't posted on Illustration Friday in awhile...well I managed to doodle up something for this weeks topic. I know bears don't sleep like dogs as far as I know or have a little squirrel companions but this one does! Together they will hibernate all winter long which is probably what I am going to do too! Enjoy.

Octo Pop

I lack creativity naming my illustrations but yes this is a weird one...

September

Happy Birthday Dad!

Quick card for my Dad's birthday. It's not the best card I made but it is homemade!

Purple Octos

These little guys are my favorites! Here's another wood and colored pencil drawing. Enjoy!

Girls.

Watercolors

When it comes to drawing and illustration I usually like to go with markers and colored pencils. Most of the time I usually end up using the computer to make most of drawings. Actually for work that's all I ever do now and days but sometimes I just really need to step away from the computer and just draw for real. It just feels good to make something from hand.

Sometimes I like to dabble in acrylics but I am starting to realize I am probably too slow of a painter for them. eventually I want to give oils paints a try but I think I will wait until winter to mess around with those. I feel like winter is a good time for painting projects. In the meantime with all of my many projects, I decided to give watercolors a try. I have a long way to go before I am any good with them and I am pretty sure I will just resort to colored pencils and markers cause they are quicker and I have a better handle with them. It's fun to try out a new technique though. It's nice and kind of traditional to be painting in watercolors I have to say. Here are two drawings I worked on this past week during a long day and half of no power after the wrath of hurricane Irene.

Whooooo goes there...

Here's another Lizling Owl but in a different color variation. More designs to come soon!

Happy Birthday Kerry!

Here's a birthday card I made for one of best lady friends!

August.

Along with a gazillion other projects I have going on I decided why not start another one! Hopefully by the end of this year I plan to have all illustrations and designs done for a 2012 calendar. I don't really know how anyone can obtain one but for right now it might be a x-mas present for a bunch of awesome people. Maybe it will be the first thing to make it to my Etsy store. Yes my Etsy store is yet another project in hiatus as well. We'll see how it all goes.

Sea Creatures.

I have been working on a few little drawings on wood based on some sea creatures like octopi, squids and eventually a few more other things but for now I just have these two little drawings to show. The Squid drawing is colored pencil on thin birch wood and is part of my bookmark series. It measures 6" x 2.25". The octopus is also colored pencil on a slice of wood and is approximately 9" x 6.25". I know I said I would not use colored pencil anymore on wood but I just like it so much more than paint. Stay tuned for more to come!

Sketchbook Doodle: Panda Express

This was just something I was doodling up in some free moments here and there. Thought I would just color it in Photoshop and add some textures to it and keep the quality of the sketch. I don't know what it means but I have been thinking about making a little panda bear plush sometime in the near future...

Signs of Life....Card Crafting Weekend!

So I know it's been awhile since my last post. I have few projects going on at once but nothing really completed! I have so many things I want to work on and so many important other things I have to work on too! Oh well, in the meantime I had sort of a 5 day mini vacation where I made these cards. The birthday card is for my mom and the hello card is for my grandma. I wish I could tell you what papers I card crafted with but all that I know is I had some random bits and pieces from Cosmo Cricket and My Mind's Eye. I also had these neat little adhesive backed chipboard stickers, one from K and Company and the other from Cosmo Cricket laying around. Once of these days I plan to make stuff with the actual papers and embellishments that I design at my job The Paper Company Studio but I haven't yet. Hey if you want to take a look check it out!

I'm still alive and kicking and hopefully there will be some more posts coming soon! Thanks for looking!!

Hungry puppy.

IF: Launch

For this weeks Illustration Friday, Scout takes off in a rocket to check out what space is like and if there is cheese on the moon for her buddy Liz (me).

Detective 8 Legs.

Another drawing with colored pencil on wood. However I think this maybe one of my last ones for a while. It's killing my pencils too quickly. He's needs a better name but I have no ideas. Anyone?

Monkey Monday!

Here's my latest toy creation of last year!! Yes I never took a picture of this little guy until now! We have this crazy amount of bamboo growing in our backyard in good ol' New Jersey. That's right it New Jersey! It's pretty cool. Anyway the monkey was commisioned as a gift for someone's baby shower. I totally was a little apprehensive about making a monkey but I am really happy with how it turned out. I am currently working on a little dragon monster this year however I would say that Lizlings is on a little bit of a hiatus for the time being. I have just been really side tracked with other stuff right now and a little bit discouraged. Change is in need! A good change where I can sit, sew and draw all day would be ideal hopefully a reality one day!